‘I have been told the new policy and plan and I am satisfied, though I doubt its ultimate success in the main particular—the stamping out of terrorism by secret murder. I still am of opinion that instant retaliation is the only course for this . . .’ Sir, —Prof. David Fitzpatrick has performed a service … Read more
Sir, —In relation to Joost Augusteijn’s review (HI 17.2, March/April2009) on the controversy over the June 1921 shootings of the Pearsonbrothers at their family farm in Coolacrease, Co. Offaly, by the IRA,your readers may be interested in a scrap of information that I cameacross when editing Wilfrid Ewart’s A Journey in Ireland 1921 for UCDPress … Read more
Sir, —One of the joys of historical research is to discover an unknown document that appears to validate (or discredit) some widely cherished yet hitherto unproven speculation. Such a document is the report submitted to Dublin Castle by Brigadier-General Cyril (not ‘Cecil’) Prescott-Decie, divisional commissioner of the RIC in Limerick, on 1 June 1920. On … Read more
Sir, —I must protest at the treatment given to my book Redmond: theParnellite by your reviewer in the Sept./Oct. 2008 issue. My complaintrefers not to any unfavourable evaluation of the book but to theslipshod nature of the review. There are many indications that the reviewer has only a passingacquaintance with the period covered by the … Read more
Sir, —Over the past year several letter-writers have raised the issue of sectarianism and ethnic cleansing in the Irish Revolution and afterward, for instance Nick Foley (HI 16.3, May/June) and Clive Sinclair-Poulton (HI 16.2, March/April, and HI 16.5, Sept./Oct.). The blunt answer is that human nature does not change and the present is the key … Read more